Billy Cook (criminal)

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Billy Cook was a notorious American mass-murderer who posed as a hitchhicker and murdered an entire family of five and other innocent motorists. Born in 1929 near Joplin, Missouri, Cook had a troubled childhood and was in and out of reform schools. An unusual aspect of Cook's appearance was his inability to close his right eyelid.

The 1953 film-noir "The Hitch-Hiker", directed by Ida Lupino, was based on the Cook crime spree, starring Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy, with William Talman as the killer. American rock singer and poet Jim Morrison (of The Doors) alluded to Cook in a number of poems and the song "Riders On The Storm", and also alluded to Cook in the short film "HWY: An American Pastoral", in which Morrison plays a hitchhicker with murderous intent.

Cook was captured in Mexico, tried in California and put to death in the gas chamber of San Quentin Prison on December 12, 1952.

An in-depth portrait of Billy Cook, his crimes and execution, appears in L.A. DESPAIR: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times, by John Gilmore, Amok Books, 2005.

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